COMMUTER chaos looks set to hit the capital once again as London Underground staff plan to stage a 48 hour strike next week.

In a protest over Tube ticket office closures, members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) Union will strike between 9pm on October 14 and 8.59pm on October 16.

The action will coincide with strikes by council workers and civil servants across the country in separate disputes over pay, jobs and cuts.

RMT general secretary Mick Cash said: "RMT negotiators have made every effort in the long-running talks to resolve a range of issues that impact on our members jobs, their pay and working conditions and the safety of the services that they provide to the travelling public.

"The cuts, currently being bulldozed through, would de-staff whole areas of the Tube system at a time of surging passenger demand and would make evacuation and other basic safety procedures a physical impossibility.

"The axing of ticket offices and station staffing grades would render the Tube a no-go zone for many people with disabilities and for women travelling alone.

The axing of ticket offices and station staffing grades would render the Tube a no-go zone for many people with disabilities and for women travelling alone

Mick Cash, RMT general secretary

"The cuts ignore the realities of life that we saw when services broke down last week and the recent surveys which point to an increase in violence and sexual assaults.

"RMT will not stand back and allow Government-driven austerity cuts to hollow out the Tube system and leave it as a dangerous shell. We are also fully aware that the current cuts are just part of a multi-billion pound attack that will include such lethal ideas as driverless-operation.

"The strike action next week is designed to force the Mayor [Boris Johnson] to instruct his senior officials to back away from this toxic cuts package and engage in serious and meaningful negotiations."

Unions have been campaigning against the planned closures since they were announced last year.

A packed Earls Court station during April's strike [GETTY]

A 48-hour strike earlier this year crippled the capital and there were several other strikes called off at the last moment.

The latest industrial action in RMT's Every Job Matters campaign follows a mass meeting of representatives to report back from talks with London Underground (LU).

Although limited progress has been made, RMT is not satisfied that enough has been done on the issue.

LU argues that few tickets are now bought at offices and claims that station staff would be more useful stationed on concourses.

The closures are planned as part of a programme of cost-cutting, through which Transport for London must save £4.2billion by 2020.

It is expected that the contentious proposals to close offices will save around £50million.